Hall of Fame honors 'one of the pillars' in former Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts — Steve Smith remembers his Big Ten battles against Purdue as the Boilermakers having somewhat of an unfair advantage.

Gene Keady was that unfair advantage.

“You peeked over there and he had that scowl,” said Smith, who played for Michigan State from 1987-91. “He put that fear in you.

“It felt like you were playing against the five guys and him because he wanted to get out on that court.”

Smith would also learn the other side of Keady, as a member of the United States 1989 World University Games team Keady was head coach for, and later with the 2000 Olympic team of which Keady was an assistant.

More: Purdue basketball's 'Play hard' style took Gene Keady to Hall of Fame

Then, Smith could appreciate Keady’s true greatness and masterful coaching style. The unfair advantage had tipped in Smith's favor alongside fiery, scowl-wielding coach.

Smith was on hand Saturday at Symphony Hall when Keady reached the pinnacle of his basketball career as a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

So, too, were others who knew the two sides of Keady: the competitor on the court and the charismatic people pleaser off.

“This is unbelievable,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari, a former golfing buddy of Keady’s. “He should’ve already been in.”

On Saturday, Gene Keady’s time had come.

A kid who once spent eight hours a day wrapping flowers in old newspapers at the greenhouse where his father worked in the tiny town of Larned, Kansas, now among basketball’s all-time greats.

“Growing up in Kansas, my parents Mary and Lloyd instilled in my sister Norma and I the importance of hard work, loyalty and family,” Keady said in his pre-recorded acceptance speech. “They showed me firsthand how to love and treat people with respect.”

Keady, a newly minted Hall of Fame orange jacket draping his wide shoulders, was flanked by two more Hall of Famers to his right: Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame chairman and former NBA coach, owner and executive Jerry Colangelo.

There was no menacing scowl on Keady’s face Saturday night.

Instead, the 87-year-old wore a mile-wide smile.

The intimidation factor opponents once feared sapped, if only for one night that was the culmination of a circuitous route to basketball glory.

After graduating from Kansas State, Keady was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he was briefly teammates with former Purdue quarterback Len Dawson.

When his football career prematurely ended, Keady became a teacher at Beloit High in Kansas. He also agreed to coach the team's golf and basketball teams and assist with coaching the football and track programs.

Even as a coaching novice, Keady had a knack for it.

From high school to junior college, to Eddie Sutton’s right-hand man at Arkansas and eventually head coach at Western Kentucky, Keady caught his break in 1980 when he was hired at Purdue, which was fresh off a Final Four appearance.

For once, Keady was unsure of himself.

“The challenge was you always wonder about your recruiting ability when you get to a school that big, so that was the first one being able to recruit at that level and still win,” Keady recalled Friday during the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame press conference. “To win in the Big Ten was very difficult, so that was a challenge and very motivating to work hard and do the right things to help your players get better.”

Well, he did alright.

Keady won 550 games as a Division I head coach, 512 of those in 25 seasons with the Purdue Boilermakers. He was five-time national coach of the year, six-time Big Ten champion and seven-time Big Ten Coach of the Year.

More: Doyel: Only Purdue's Gene Keady, Hall of Famer, could tame IU's Bob Knight on, off court

Keady was cheered by 14,000-plus screaming fans in Mackey Arena, which had the court named after him in 1997, and jeered in Assembly Hall, Jenison Fieldhouse and every Big Ten arena in between.

He had a scowl and a bad combover. He'd sometimes lose his cool to the point of winging his suit jacket into the Purdue bench.

In a league of iconic coaches, Keady made his mark.

“When you start talking about college basketball and you start talking about the pillars, Gene Keady goes there,” Smith said. “Especially for me in Big Ten country, it’s Keady, it’s (Jud) Heathcote, it’s (Lou) Henson, it’s (Bob) Knight. Those guys were the fabric of the Big Ten.”

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Hall of Fame honors former Purdue basketball coach Gene Keady